C
urious about philanthropic “gift catalogues” that allow donors to sponsor a child, furnish medical supplies or buy an animal for an impoverished family, Strom followed the money through several organizations to trace the individual stories of recipients around the globe. Her intended audience is clearly Christian evangelicals who share the author's views that temporal assistance can and should also stand as a witness of God's love. The stories are gripping, inspiring and heart-wrenching—about abandoned street children in Senegal and hardscrabble mountain villages of remote Indian provinces, for example. And this is not your parents' philanthropy—these organizations have learned from the well-meaning but often culturally insensitive assistance of yore. Their programs are designed as partnerships with local communities and built for sustainability. Strom makes an effort to point out the stumbling blocks for many efforts, but mostly she writes through a lens of faith, occasionally bordering on the maudlin. Repeatedly negative characterizations of Islam mar the book, which is heavy with evangelical rhetoric. It ends with the satisfied stories of donors and the power that their sense of personal connection to recipients has wrought in their lives. The book is flawed, but cannot fail to inspire readers to stretch past donor fatigue and dig into their pocketbooks a little deeper. (July)
